AP News in Brief at 11:09 p.m. EDT

Ceremony, political gibes mark Trump’s first day in London

LONDON (AP) — Mixing pageantry and pugilism, President Donald Trump plunged into his long-delayed state visit to Britain on Monday, welcomed with smiles and a cannon salute by the royals but launching political insults at others in a time of turmoil for both nations in the deep, if recently strained, alliance.

It was a whirlwind of pomp, circumstance and protest for Trump, who had lunch with Queen Elizabeth and tea with Prince Charles before a grand state dinner at Buckingham Palace.

The queen used her toast to emphasize the importance of international institutions created by Britain, the United States and other allies after World War II, a subtle rebuttal to Trump, a critic of NATO and the U.N.

But most of the talk and the colorful images were just what the White House wanted to showcase Trump as a statesman while, back home, the race to succeed him — and talk of impeaching him — heated up. Yet Trump, forever a counter-puncher, immediately roiled diplomatic docility by tearing into London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The agenda for Trump’s weeklong European journey is mostly ceremonial:

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Congress launches Big Tech antitrust probe

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The federal government may be warming up its antitrust enforcement machine and pointing it at Big Tech.

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee announced a sweeping antitrust probe of unspecified technology companies. In a statement, it promised “a top-to-bottom review of the market power held by giant tech platforms,” which would be the first such Congress has ever undertaken.

Earlier in the day, shares of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple dropped significantly after published reports suggested that federal authorities are preparing for investigations into anticompetitive behaviour by several of these technology giants.

Facebook’s stock dropped 7.5%. Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 6.1%. Amazon declined 4.6%. Apple, which has only been mentioned tangentially in these reports, fell 1%.

Some of the underlying developments appear to represent a divvying up of turf between the Department of Justice’s antitrust cops and the Federal Trade Commission, which also holds antitrust authority. The Justice Department would reportedly hold authority over Google and Apple, which the FTC would take point on investigations of Facebook and Amazon.

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Judge rejects Congress’ challenge of border wall funding

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday denied a House request to prevent President Donald Trump from tapping Defence Department money for his proposed border wall with Mexico, saying Congress lacked authority to sue.

Trump’s victory is muted by a federal ruling in California last month that blocked construction of key sections of the wall. The California case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, wrote that the House’s lawsuit was “about whether one chamber of Congress has the ‘constitutional means’ to conscript the Judiciary in a political turf war with the President over the implementation of legislation.”

McFadden said Congress didn’t have authority in this case but that he didn’t mean to imply the legislative body could never challenge the president in court over separation of powers.

“An old maxim in politics holds that, ‘Where you stand depends on where you sit,’” he wrote. “At law too, whether a plaintiff has standing often depends on where he sits. A seat in Congress comes with many prerogatives, but legal standing to superintend the execution of laws is not among them.”

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Gunman’s motive unclear, officials quiet days after shooting

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Beach employee who shot and killed 12 people at a municipal building gave no hint of the massacre to come when he emailed his resignation letter earlier in the day, saying that he was leaving for “personal reasons” but that “it has been a pleasure to serve.”

The gunman’s two-sentence emailed resignation letter — released by city officials Monday, three days after the shooting — put authorities, the community and victims’ families no closer to understanding why the engineer with 15 years on the job would go on a rampage at work.

Investigators seem stymied. There are no indications the 40-year-old Craddock left notes, manifestos, social media screeds or any other obvious signs of what motivated him.

Craddock’s resignation email gave his two weeks’ notice but no clues that he was unhappy at work or held a grudge against anyone. Because the email is partially redacted, it’s unclear how long before the shooting it was sent. Officials wouldn’t say why they redacted it, and they declined to give an update on the investigation Monday.

Craddock’s email reads: “I want to officially put in my (2) weeks’ notice to vacant my position of Engineer III with the City of Virginia Beach. It has been a pleasure to serve the City, but due to personal reasons I must relieve my position.”

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APNewsBreak: Ex-governor’s phone seized in Flint water probe

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Authorities investigating Flint’s water crisis have used search warrants to seize from storage the state-owned mobile devices of former Gov. Rick Snyder and 65 other current or former officials, The Associated Press has learned.

The warrants were sought two weeks ago by the attorney general’s office and signed by a Flint judge, according to documents the AP obtained through public records requests.

Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is helping with the probe, confirmed they executed a series of search warrants related to the criminal investigation of Flint’s lead-contaminated water in 2014-15 and a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.

The water crisis in Flint was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history. Untreated water leached lead from pipes and into Flint’s homes and businesses while cost-cutting financial managers — appointed by Snyder — were running the city.

The investigation has led to charges against 15 current or former government officials, including two who served in the Cabinet of Snyder, a Republican who left office in December. But no one is behind bars, and some Flint residents believe key players who could have prevented the lead debacle are getting off easy.

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High security a reminder on 30th anniversary of Tiananmen

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities stepped up security Tuesday around Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, a reminder of the government’s attempts to quash any memories of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests 30 years ago.

Extra checkpoints and street closures greeted tourists who showed up before 5 a.m. to watch the daily flag-raising ceremony. An honour guard marched across a barricaded road and raised the Chinese flag as the national anthem played.

Foreign journalists were not allowed onto the square to record events.

Hundreds, if not thousands of people are believed to have been killed in 1989 when the government sent in the military to clear Tiananmen Square of protesters in an operation that began the night of June 3 and ended the following morning.

For many Chinese, the 30th anniversary of the crackdown will pass like any other day. Any commemoration of the event is not allowed in mainland China, and the government has blocked access to information about it on the internet.

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Congress finally sends $19B disaster aid bill to Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — A long-delayed $19.1 billion disaster aid bill sailed through the House on Monday and headed to President Donald Trump for his expected signature, overcoming months of infighting, misjudgment and a feud between Trump and congressional Democrats.

Lawmakers gave the measure final congressional approval by 354-58 in the House’s first significant action after returning from a 10-day recess. It was backed by all 222 voting Democrats and 132 Republicans, including the GOP’s top leaders and many of its legislators from areas hit by hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and fires. Fifty-eight Republicans voted “no,” including many of the party’s most conservative members.

Trump hailed passage of the bill, tweeting, “Farmers, Puerto Rico and all will be very happy.” The president also suggested, incorrectly, that the bill would now see action in the Senate. That chamber had already passed the bill by a sweeping 85-8 vote on its way out of Washington May 23, a margin that reflected a consensus that the bill is long overdue.

But conservative Republicans in the House held up the bill last week, objecting on three occasions to efforts by Democratic leaders to pass the bill by a voice vote requiring unanimity. They said the legislation — which reflects an increasingly permissive attitude in Washington on spending to address disasters that sooner or later hit every region of the country — shouldn’t be rushed through without a recorded vote.

Along the way, House and Senate old-timers seemed to outmanoeuvr the White House, though Trump personally prevailed upon Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., to drop a bid to free up billions of dollars for dredging and other harbour projects.

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Spoiler alert: ‘Jeopardy!’ star Holzhauer’s fate revealed

NEW YORK (AP) — James Holzhauer, the trivia whiz who dominated “Jeopardy!” this spring, isn’t invincible after all.

The game show’s 32-time champion lost for the first time in an episode that aired on Monday, falling short of records for total winnings and longest reign, but still making an argument that he’s the best to ever play television’s most popular game.

The professional sports gambler from Las Vegas ended his run by high-fiving the woman who beat him, Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher.

“I really felt like I had been playing with house money, so I wasn’t too upset to see my run end,” Holzhauer said in an email interview. He said he ran into “a terrific opponent playing flawlessly.”

The streak made Holzhauer a household name and sent ratings soaring, at a time “Jeopardy!” needed a pick-me-up amid host Alex Trebek’s announcement that he had cancer.

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Perk up: California says coffee cancer risk insignificant

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California officially gave its blessing to coffee Monday, declaring the beverage does not pose a “significant” cancer risk.

The rule, proposed a year ago by regulators, means coffee won’t have to carry ominous warnings that the beverage may be bad for you.

The state took the rare move after a Los Angeles judge found Starbucks Corp. and other companies failed to show that benefits from drinking coffee outweighed risks from a byproduct of the roasting process.

That ruling put the industry in jeopardy of hefty civil penalties and in the position of either developing a process to remove the chemical or warning consumers about the risk of cancer.

The chemical in question, acrylamide, is on a list that California says causes cancer, though other groups classify it as a “probable” carcinogen.

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Blues beat Bruins 4-2 to knot Stanley Cup Final at 2-2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ryan O’Reilly scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period for his second of the night, and the St. Louis Blues thrived in a chaotic Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night to beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 and tie the series at two games apiece.

O’Reilly ended an eight-game goal drought by scoring 43 seconds into the game and with 9:22 left in the third period. The game was a back-and-forth thriller, with Boston’s Tuukka Rask and St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington each giving up tons of rebounds for frantic scoring chances and scrums.

Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Blues, and Binnington made 21 saves to improve to 7-2 in the playoffs after a loss. Even more impressive was the rookie’s bounce-back from being pulled in Game 3 for the first time in his NHL career.

Rask allowed three goals on 37 shots and was on the receiving end of Blues onslaughts at times. Charlie Coyle scored for the third consecutive game, and Brandon Carlo had a short-handed goal for Boston, which was worn out by going down to five defencemen again after Zdeno Chara left bloodied after taking a puck to the face.

Game 5 is Thursday night in Boston.